Making Halloween Pumpkin Pie

This is such a fun and simple pie for Halloween! It uses activated charcoal to make the pie dough black. The activated charcoal tastes just like regular crust, although a little denser. You can check out the full black pie dough recipe here. Once you’re ready to make the pie you can roll out the dough as any normal pie crust:

Then, you place it in your pie pan. I use the method of rolling the dough over the rolling pin to place it in your pie dish as show in my sweet tart dough recipe. Then you can trim the excess and shape the edges. For this halloween themed pie I did spikes but you can do whatever you wish. Then, blind bake the pie crust by putting down tin foil on top of the crust and filling the pie with beans or pie weights. While it’s baking, you can make the filling. It’s so easy, you put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork or whisk until thoroughly combined.

Once the pie crust comes out of the oven, you’ll remove the pie weights and bake a few more minutes. Then, you’ll remove the crust again and while the pie crust is still hot add the filling and carefully place the pie back in the oven. It’s best to keep the pie on a baking sheet so it’s easy to move around. Pumpkin pie is similar to a custard pie or a cheesecake in that you want to make sure not to overcook it. It will still taste good, but might get a crack on the top or cave in while it cools. You want to remove it when the middle is still pretty jiggly.

Halloween Pie Dough Cut Outs

If you’re making cut outs to top the pie, it’s good time to cut them out while the pie is baking. You can keep them on the a cookie sheet in the fridge while the pie cooks. I made a haunted house with some bats, but you can use any fun cut outs you want. Making a double crust will give you a lot of extra dough, even with making cut outs. You can use the extra for mini tarts or save it for your next charcoal pie.

Halloween Pumpkin Pie Activated Charcoal Black Crust

Once the pie is out of the oven let it cool until room temperature. While it’s cooling you can bake the cut outs. Once the pie is completely cool you can place the cut outs on the pie and serve. It’s that easy!

Please note, while activated charcoal is generally considered safe, it can interfere with certain medication so check with your physician if you’re taking any prescriptions. You can read more about it here.